M40 Blues

Carrie on nb Blackbird posted a beautiful picture the other day of the sun rise on a very frosty day at Bridge 172 on the Oxford Canal. We moored in almost exactly the same spot in very different conditions, on a sunny September afternoon.


It's a lovely spot, except, as Carrie points out, for the drone of the M40 (which gets worse once you're through the bridge).

I recently found a trip report which showed how different things used to be. Andrew Smith, one of the owners of the OwnerShips boat Sojourn, has posted a log written by his father during a family holiday on the Oxford Canal in August 1982. One night they moored near Grants Lock, just past Bridge 173. That's just about where the M40 crosses the canal, and would be pretty unbearable today. On the other hand, there were serious water shortages on the canal (and the fashions of the day leave a bit to be desired too!). Other reports on Andrew's site include another Oxford Canl trip from 1970 and a holiday on the Llangollen in 1990, as well as his own family's trips on Sojourn.